


Of Burnt Rubber and Horrible Decisions

by WitchyWriter



Category: Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice
Genre: Armand Is a Child Still, Armand learns to drive, Fluff, I Ship It, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, IDC What Anyone Says Armand/Daniel for Life, M/M, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchyWriter/pseuds/WitchyWriter
Summary: Armand wants to learn how to drive, Daniel is reluctant to teach him.
Relationships: Armand/Daniel Molloy
Comments: 7
Kudos: 27





	Of Burnt Rubber and Horrible Decisions

Letting Armand drive was a horrible fucking idea. Come to think of it though, most ideas I have are typically bad ones; why he lets me out into the world at all is a mystery. 

Recently, with my life given back to me in a haze of drunken dreams and bloody wrists; I’ve taken up driving again. I avoided it for years, never being able to stay awake long enough or focus on what’s in front of me to not almost die every time. A few unfavorable encounters with the boys in blue also took the freedom and power of being behind the wheel anyway. However, thanks to my new lease on life and Armand’s favorable income, I treated myself to a Ferrari. A real beast too, up to one hundred and fifty miles per hour in less than ten seconds. 

The hours I would spend each night in that car, pushing the engine and enjoying the feeling of the wind in my hair as I sped through the backroads and abandoned fields of San Francisco. I didn’t have to run away anymore, drinking my problems lost it’s touch after I became an immortal. Anytime I had to escape the creeping pressure of being alive slowly kneading its way into my skull, I just slipped the key in the ignition and let the car take me anywhere. Our house was beautiful and Armand tries so hard to make me happy; but his detachment from what it is to be alive is too much for him to truly understand how I feel. Sometimes, when the gap is so large and I’m about to fall in, I call up Louis and lament for hours. He listens, small sounds and few words let me know he’s still there and then we say goodbye and I feel like myself again. The others don’t lie, he really is the most human of us all.

But my car, my second love besides my redheaded boy, was truly what kept me going sometimes. Armand noticed this, leaving me to whip around the city and not ask where I’d gone when I got back. My wind thrown hair and half tank of gas told him all he needed to know.

“Would you teach me Daniel?” He asked one night as we strolled around downtown, looking for something to eat. He stared up at me with those huge eyes of his, curiosity flicking itself over his irises.

I stopped and stared at him, “Teach you what? I didn’t think that there was much you could learn from me. You are my superior after all.” I knew exactly what he meant in truth, I just wanted to hear him say so I didn’t give him the idea.

“To drive Daniel! You spend so many hours in that automobile of yours I thought you would be able to teach me. I’ve never had the chance to drive before, whenever I try everyone thinks I’m still a mortal child.” 

I tried not let the subtle notes of fear show on my face. Even though he couldn’t read my thoughts anymore, Armand was a master at body language. The slightest twitch of my eye could lead to over an hour of asking me if I was ok or an argument. It felt nice to be cared and worried about, but not over me coughing just a little too aggressively. 

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose, ultimately deciding that there’s no harm in letting him try, “There’s an open field I like to go to sometimes when I want to let off some steam, I don’t see why you can’t learn there. Are you sure though, boss? Driving can be scary if you’ve never done it before.” 

He nodded his head so fast it made me dizzy, accidentally letting out a squeal and dragging me into a tight hug. I had only seen him this outwardly joyful once before, I’m convinced that his stoicism only allows one outburst of each emotion a year. I witnessed the yelling last month over a tear in one of his oldest shirts and now this; that can only mean that tears are coming next sometime in the next few months. What a fun day that’ll be.

“Armand, you’re crushing my ribs.” I gasped, to this day he forgets that he can still kill me with just one grip too tight. 

He let go and traded my midsection for my hand, leading the way back home with an anxious pace. You would have thought we flew home with how fast we reached the front door, Armand practically shoving me into the driver’s side of the car. 

“I’m going to grab the keys, don’t go anywhere.” And with that Armand was just a red-tinged blur going in the direction of the front door. 

It was a quiet night, the gentle comings of summer making itself known in the dampening of the air and fireflies replacing stars. The blood flowing through my veins made me appreciate everything with a new sense of tenacity, living life sober definitely had its perks. Crickets played their symphony along with the cool breeze, the moon showing just slightly over a smattering of clouds. This was a perfect night for a drive, disturbing the peace was always something I liked to do. Especially if it was with him. 

Speak of the devil, Armand came in a flash out of the house, launching the keys into the air and hoisting himself over the car door into the passengers seat. He decided to change out of his normal evening attire of a simple button-up shirt and slacks into one of his new tracksuits and sneakers. The discovery of “modern comfort attire” as he put it intrigued him; his typical choice of silks and furs didn’t exactly make him blend in and with our recent adventures coming to an epic conclusion, he wanted to try fading into the background for a while.

I look over to him as I turn the key in the ignition, firing up the engine and pushing down on each peddle, “Here’s lesson one: right makes us go and left makes us stop,” He nodded, eating up every word. I pointed to the gear shift, “Lesson two: R is for reverse, D is for drive, and P is for park. The other ones aren’t important and honestly I don’t know what they mean so just, don’t touch them. Buckle up.” 

I put my hand across the back of his seat, ensuring that he was secure before backing out of the long driveway. It wasn’t a long drive to the empty field, a few sharp turns and big hills was all that separated our modern home from the overgrown weeds and curiously short grass. The top was down and the breeze was cool, prompting Armand to throw his hands in the air and toss his head back. I broke my focus on the road to watch him, I’d never seen him act like this before.

“And what are you doing?” 

He opened his eyes, still facing the moon, “Breathing. You forget to do it sometimes when you’re dead. This is probably the most alive I’ve felt in days Daniel, thank you for agreeing to teach me. I’m a fast learner I swear.” Armand brushes the back of my head with his hand, “Now eyes on the road.” 

The radio blasts Tainted Love as we pull up to the deserted field. It’s only illumination is a single streetlamp, our headlights and the moon herself; not a single sound besides the radio and the engine. 

“Alright,” I say, smacking the steering wheel and hopping out of the car, “It’s time to switch spots!” I’m nervous and he can tell, a light tremor in my voice making his eyebrow go up as he slides into the drivers seat. 

Armand grips the steering wheel, feeling the leather and becoming acquainted with how to turn and manipulate it. He tries to tap the gas and the breaks, but the seat was adjusted for me so he can’t reach. I forget how short he is sometimes, coming up to only my mid-bicep and being far less lanky. He hates me for it, but I’ve made it a habit to use him as an arm rest, giving me a few bite marks for catching him on off days.

“Oh- um, here let me fix that for you.” I lean over the center console and pull him closer, my face practically in his lap. 

He pets my head and smiles, “You need not be so worried Daniel, we’re in the middle of nowhere and I’m perfectly capable of piloting a car.”

Him calling driving “piloting’ does not do anything to alleviate my stress, but he’s right, I should trust him more.

“Alright then Speedracer, put your foot on the break and put the car in drive.” Slowly, he heeded my instruction, pulling down the gear shift like it could break any second. 

I let out a short exhale, my anxiety making my hands shake, “Now don’t take your foot off the break or the car will start to roll forward. But if you’re ok to start going, gently move your foot over to the gas and push down; you only need your right foot to drive.”

He didn’t move his foot over gently. 

The car did exactly what is was made to do, go over a hundred and fifty miles in ten seconds. Armand didn’t react, not a scream or even so much as a ‘Fuck’ came out of his annoyingly perfect mouth. Instead, it was me screaming at the top of my lungs and being so fucking scared I forgot we had an emergency break. He jolted the wheel and to the left we went, flying through the field at such a velocity I could have sworn I smelt fire. As if we were in a bumper car, he flopped the wheel from side to side, bringing the rest of the car lolling behind and trying to keep up. I looked over, my eyes wild and hands gripping at my chest like my heart was going to fall out; Armand’s gaze was set, tongue poking out from between his teeth and his knuckles turning white from how hard he held the steering wheel. The joy ride stopped when he suddenly slammed on the break, promptly removing my ass from the car and launching me what felt like ten feet in the air.

I landed in the backseat, dizzy but unharmed. 

“Daniel? Daniel? Where’d you go?” Armand looked around frantically, the first indication he’s given that he even remembered I was still there.

“I’m back here you fucking psychopath! What were you thinking? I said gently put your foot on the gas not fucking floor it and send up back in time!”

He looked at me, unfazed, “I forget my own strength sometimes, you know that. I didn’t know that the peddles would be so sensitive.”

I crawled back into the passengers seat and clamped my hands down on his shoulders. I was visibly angry and made no attempt to hide the lack of patience in my voice,“And you didn’t stop because…?”

That made him break eye contact and look back into the field, tracing his gaze along the tire track flattened patches of grass, “It was fun. I was having fun and didn’t want to stop.” He said softly, almost embarrassed.

All of a sudden I felt a pang of guilt in my stomach. It dawned on me that despite his age, there was still a part of him that retained his visible youth. Time periods aside, Armand never got to just be a teenager or so much as a child at all. While I was dating girls, boys, whatever; In his own time capsule he was dealing with unspeakable things. People coming in and out of his life, using him for their own sick needs and quite literally drinking up any part of him that they could. Armand never learned what true, unadulterated fun was; it simply did not exist to him. No one was there to guide him by means of joy, what made him happy or even how to discover what made him smile. He may be the vampiric wiseman and acclaimed showman he is now, but deep down he’s still a seventeen year old boy staring wide eyed at the world. 

It was my job now to show him how to be a kid and his to teach me how to grow up. What a strange juxtaposition that it. 

I sighed and pulled him in for a hug, “I know you were having fun, it’s okay. Tell you what,” I unbuckled his seat belt and hopped out of the passengers seat, “You get back in the sidecar and I’ll drive us around the field. Something tells me that you just want to go fast and not learn right now. Personally, watching you have all of that fun makes me want to really tear into this dirt.”

His eyes lit up again, the same spark I see when I let him pick what we watch on TV. It’s innocence letting itself back into his body, something foreign and scary but desperate to come to the surface. His mind reveling in doing something simple and non-taxing, being a passenger or making a consequence -less choice. I need him to feel safe around me, unafraid to let the wall built for strangers fall to the ground and let himself fall into the rhythm of no longer being the only one looking out for him. 

We had switched spots, Armand tapping his feet in excitement and watching me readjust the seat with such intensity I thought the sharpness of his eyes would cut the seatbelt. 

“Will you teach me to drive one night Daniel, for real? I do actually want to learn you know.” He was clearly nervous, an out-of-character level of trepidation in his voice. 

I turned to him slowly and gave him a soft smile as I placed my hand on his chin and pulled him in for a kiss, “If my car doesn’t get blown to pieces from what I’m about to do, of course.”

He smiled against my lips and pushed me back towards the wheel, “Good to hear! Send us to the moon!”

My foot found its favorite spot on the gas and my hands found their position without even thinking, a familiarity that I’ve grown to savor. I revved the engine, teasing Armand’s adrenaline and making him so excited I thought he would explode. Then we shot forward so fast it knocked the wind out of my lungs, Armand screaming “I love you” over and over out into the open field. 

I fear that I’ve created a monster, but then again, aren’t be both already?


End file.
